Yellowstone Fire Of 1988 : National Park Essay

Yellowstone National Park is the oldest national park in the world. Most of the park is located in Wyoming, but also in Idaho and Montana. The park covers 3,400 miles and is 83% forest. It has large volcanic plateaus of quaternary rhyolitic rocks surrounded by mountains of predominantly andesitic rocks. Fire is a main factor of the changing ecology of the Yellowstone ecosystem. In the summer of 1988, The fire began when lightning strike set a small group of pines on fire on June 22. Yellowstone caught fire causing mass destruction to about 1.4 million in and around the Yellowstone area. Only 36% of this were actually in the park boundaries. Sixty-seven structures were destroyed including 18 cabins used by employees and guests. $3 million was the estimated property damage. Throughout August and September, some park roads and facilities were closed to the public, and residents nearby feared for their their lives. The fire lasted from June to November. This was one of the driest and windiest summers since the park was established in 1872. A $140,000 million dollar effort was made to stop the fire with 9,500 firefighters participating. They used more than 100 fire engines, dropped more than 1,000,000 gallons of fire retardant, and used used 117 aircraft in attempts to put out the fire. After all of that, they still failed and the fire was put out by the rain and the winter snow. The…

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